Indigenous people must not carry the load of diversity

It takes a toll

The additional cultural workload increases risk of inducing vicarious trauma. Continually revisiting intergenerational trauma takes its toll on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, who are already working between two worlds.

It can also be difficult switching off from being in education mode or from First Nations advocacy. This additional cultural load, and the cumulative effects of empathetic engagement with non-Indigenous staff and management, can result in burnout or “compassion fatigue”.

Culturally unsafe environments (that discriminate against, diminish or disempower someone’s cultural identity), workload stress and physiological stress are all workplace hazards. Employers have a duty of care to remove or minimise any hazard that can be detrimental to a worker’s health and safety.

So, what can employers do?

To ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff aren’t overburdened, employers can implement practical measures to reduce their cultural load.

Research shows an organisation’s culture can thrive by adopting a management framework of continuous evaluation and improvement. Organisations can appoint diversity leaders, to promote accountability and buy-in from all levels of leadership, and ensure their initiatives have the support of HR departments.

Organisations can also employ diversity officers to help staff to support inclusion efforts and anti-racism.

Implementing a reconciliation action plan is another way to increase awareness of cultural load among employers and staff. Run by Reconciliation Australia, the plans are a framework for organisations to be inclusive and contribute to national reconciliation.

Since 2006, more than 2,000 organisations have formalised their commitment to reconciliation with a reconciliation action plan, including at Flinders University, where we work.

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The Flinders University reconciliation action plan has several smaller working groups. Our working group aims to:

• • ensure any Aboriginal-related work is Aboriginal-led and informed

• • recognise identity strain and educate non-Indigenous staff about how to interact with First Nations colleagues in ways that reduce this

• • recognise and remunerate cultural load as part of an employee’s workload

• • provide support and workload management to alleviate cultural load (by advocating for management to allocate extra workload “points” to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues, so this work is no longer “invisible”)

• • recognise the importance of celebrating cultural identities and supporting First Nations staff and students to engage in significant community events.

Our working groups comprise both First Nations and non-Indigenous members and are guided by two-eyed-seeing. This means bringing together both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, ways of being, knowing and doing, to achieve collaboration and partnership.

Since we ratified our first plan in 2020, we have worked to increase:

• • engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, staff and community

• • respect for First Nations knowledge systems and perspectives

• • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advancement in education, research, employment and wellbeing.

Sometimes reconciliation action plans aren’t taken seriously because they lack accountability. Although there’s not much evidence they create change, supporters of reconciliation highlight their ability to create shared values in workplaces.

Non-Indigenous staff have a duty to ensure their work doesn’t perpetuate trauma from centuries of colonisation. Everyone can be a cultural ally and advocate for change.

Acknowledgement: thanks to our Aboriginal colleagues who generously share their time and cultural knowledge, especially Kristal Matthews, Larissa Taylor, Sharon Watts and David Copley.